Valuing Animals

Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America
Erscheinungsjahr 2002
ISBN: 978-0-8018-7129-0
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 173 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 463 g

Reihe: Animals, History, Culture

Over the course of the twentieth century, the relationship between Americans and their domestic animals has changed dramatically. In the 1890s, pets were a luxury, horses were the primary mode of transport, and nearly half of all Americans lived or worked on farms. Today, the pet industry is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business, keeping horses has become an expensive hobby, and consumers buy milk and meat in pristine supermarkets. Veterinarians have been very much a part of these changes in human-animal relationships. Indeed, the development of their profession—from horse doctor to medical scientist—provides an important perspective on these significant transformations in America's social, cultural, and economic history.

In Valuing Animals, Susan D. Jones, trained as both veterinarian and historian, traces the rise of veterinary medicine and its impact on the often conflicting ways in which Americans have assessed the utility and worth of domesticated creatures. She first looks at how the eclipse of the horse by motorized vehicles in the early years of the century created a crisis for veterinary education, practice, and research. In response, veterinarians intensified their activities in making the livestock industry more sanitary and profitable. Beginning in the 1930s, veterinarians turned to the burgeoning number of house pets whose sentimental value to their owners translated into new market opportunities. Jones describes how vets overcame their initial doubts about the significance of this market and began devising new treatments and establishing appropriate standards of care, helping to create modern pet culture.

Americans today value domestic animals for reasons that typically combine exploitation and companionship. Both controversial and compelling, Valuing Animals uncovers the extent to which veterinary medicine has shaped—and been shaped by—this contradictory attitude.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jones, Susan D

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Veterinärmedizin Veterinärmedizin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. Doctoring a Nation of Animals at the Century's Turn
Chapter 2. Valuable Patients
Horses and the Domestic Animal Economy
Chapter 3. The Value of Animal Health for Human Health
Chapter 4. The Value in Numbers
Creating "Factory Farms" at Midcentury
Chapter 5. Pricing the Priceless Pet
Chapter 6. Reconciling Use and Humanitarianism
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jones, Susan D
Susan D. Jones is a veterinarian and an associate professor in the Program in the History of Science and Technology and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She is the author of Valuing Animals: Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Susan D. Jones, D.V.M., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado–Boulder.